The 103rd Infantry Division

Insignia of the 103rd Infantry Division. The 103rd Infantry Division, the "Cactus" division, is so called after the 103rd's shoulder patch, a cactus in a gold circle. The cactus is representative of the states whose troops formed the unit in the early 1920s: Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico.

Established in 1942, the 103rd Infantry Division landed in southern France in late October 1944, a few months after the Allied invasion of western Europe on D-Day (June 6, 1944). From the port of Marseille, the "Cactus" division advanced northward, eventually crossing into Germany in December 1944. The swift German offensive into the Ardennes during the Battle of the Bulge that month forced the unit to take up defensive positions in the area of Alsace-Lorraine. In March 1945, the 103rd advanced into the Rhineland, then moved southward into Bavaria. On May 3, 1945, the division captured the city of Innsbruck in Austria.

As the 103rd moved into Bavaria, its troops uncovered one of the Nazi subcamps attached to the Kaufering camp complex in the Landsberg area.

The 103rd Infantry Division was recognized as a liberating unit by the US Army's Center of Military History and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1985.

Casualty figures for the 103rd Infantry Division, European theater of operations Total battle casualties: 4,558Total deaths in battle: 834

Division nicknameThe 103rd Infantry Division, the "Cactus" division, is so called after the 103rd's shoulder patch, a cactus in a gold circle. The cactus is representative of the states whose troops formed the unit in the early 1920s: Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico.